In the garden

Michael S Kesler

R&D Associate

Dr. Michael S. Kesler is an R&D Staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he has worked in the Thermomagnetic Processing Laboratory for the past 7 years. His main research foci entail thermomagnetic processing and aluminum alloy development. In 2011, Michael received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida where he studied physical and mechanical metallurgy in the Materials Science and Engineering Department under the late Dr. Fereshteh Ebrahimi. He has extensive experience in materials characterization and advanced materials processing. As an experimentalist, he has designed quenching furnaces, custom heating inserts, an in-situ neutron characterization device, and designed and characterized novel alloys in a variety of materials systems, some of which include titanium aluminides, aluminum alloys, hard magnet materials, shape memory alloys, and composites. Michael is an active TMS member and sits on the Magnetic Materials and Aluminum Committees. In his spare time, he enjoys: spending time with his family; playing and watching sports; traveling; hiking; snowboarding; mountain biking; and gardening.

ORNL Innovation Award (2023)

TechConnect Innovation Award, Al-Ce Alloys for Additive Manufacturing (2019)

R&D100 Award: Ageless Aluminum Revolution (2017)

TMS member: Magnetic Materials Committee, Aluminum Committee

"Aluminum alloys with improved intergranular corrosion resistance properties and methods of making and using the same" US Patent 11,761,061

"Rare Earth Element-Aluminum Alloys" US Patent 11,718,898 B2 

"Aluminum-Fiber Composites Containing Intermetallic Phase at the Matrix-Fiber Interface" US Patent 11,667,996 

"Aluminum-cerium-manganese alloy embodiments for metal additive manufacturing" US Patent 11,608,546

"Reactive matrix infiltration of powder preforms" US Patent 11,565,318

"Structural direct-write additive manufacturing of molten metals" US Patent 11,535,912

"Production of castable light rare earth rich light metal compositions from direct reduction processes" US Patent 11,365,463

"High command fidelity electromagnetically driven calorimeter" US Patent 10,782,193